Timeline
Contents =Pre-War Era= Several million years ago * The Magellanic Race reaches its peak, before disappearing within a short space of time. Shinji Sakahara has vaguely-defined ties to them and their disappearance. 1196 * June 17th - Knights from the Kingdom of France discover the Holy Grail, but do not retrieve it. 1476 * Unknown - Anneliese is born. 1492 * August 3rd - A demon-masked samurai rescues Anneliese from a miscarriage of justice, in the Duchy of Lorraine, and relocates her to Musashi Province in medieval Japan. 1878 * December 18th - Joseph Stalin is born. 1890 * November 14th - Frank Rosefield is born. 1904 * February 8th - The Russo-Japanese War begins, due to rival imperialist influences over Korea and Manchuria. 1905 * September 5th - The Treaty of Portsmouth is signed between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan, ending the Russo-Japanese War. 1907 * December 5th - Stalin's first and most beloved wife, Kato Svanidze, dies of typhus. The unborn fetus of Elena Trotskaya is harvested from Svanidze's body, frozen and preserved in the Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa Grotto by Stalin, with the help of Georgian mortician Saba Sharadze, to be brought to life 'when the time is right'. 1908 * June 30th - A Khazard'Vaar phylactery ship, containing the comatose Machine King Vaar'madr, crash-lands near Krasnoyarsk, creating the Tunguska Anomaly. Though the explosion of the ship's antimatter engines above the ground create the ground zero of the event, the bulk of it (including the mostly-intact mainframe aboard) impacts not far away and created Lake Cheko. The survival of the mainframe allows the Machine King housed within to escape and assume the form of Grigory Rasputin. 1912 * Early in the year - Stalin encounters Savva Sokolov "for the first time" in Siberia. * April 8th - The unidentified American scientist known as Alphonse disappears from space and time after experimentation with quantum physics. This event supposedly allowed Shinji Sakahara to come into the Frencoverse. 1914 * July 28th - The Austro-Hungarian Empire declares war on Serbia for their supposed connections to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, and inability to answer Austria's ultimatum satisfactorily, effectively triggering World War I. 1915 * April - Nevskiy and Tsentral'niy districts are established in Petrograd. * April 26th - Oskar Wolf is born. * May 28th - Tired by what he perceives to be lack of American public interest in his scientific work and psychologically affected anti-German sentiments directed against him, Frank Rosefield arrives in Germany in search of new career opportunities. * June 3rd - Frank Rosefield is accepted to work in the German military. He is assigned to help perfect a chlorine-based gas the Germans have been working on. * August 6th - "Attack of the Dead Men": poison gases that Frank Rosefield has been working on is used against Russian defenders of Osowiec Fortress in Poland, killing some 800 Russian soldiers. The 100 or so survivors are reported to be drenched in their own blood. * August 22nd - The first day after the Russians' retreat from Osowiec Fortress, Frank Rosefield witnesses how effective his gas was, and obtains a recently-dead sample nearby for analysis. Until the end of World War I, Rosefield will be working in the safety of his laboratory near Berlin, continuing to create biological and chemical weapons for the German war effort. 1916 * December 27th - Stalin learns from Russian Imperial prince Felix Yusupov of the plot to enslave the human race by Rasputin/Vaar'madr, and thereby of the Tunguska Anomaly. * December 30th - After a concerted effort by a small group of conspirators (among whom are Yusupov and the Bolsheviks Stalin, Savva Sokolov, Vyacheslav Molotov and Kliment Voroshilov), Rasputin is defeated and Vaar'madr is destroyed. 1917 * March 12th - The Russian Imperial family is ousted in the February Revolution, bringing the Provisional Government under Prince Georgiy Lvov to power. * November 7th - The Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin seize power in the October Revolution, bringing down the Provisional Government and resulting in the creation of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic - the precursor to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 1918 * November 11th - World War I ends with an Armistice. Frank Rosefield retreats to live in Berlin's outskirts in obscurity. 1919 * December 24th - Roh Hyeon-Mu is born. 1920 * December 13th - Winston Kirche is born. 1923 * September 4th - Hua Zejun is born. 1924 * January 21st - Lenin dies, setting off a power struggle to replace him. Within ten years, Stalin - as General Secretary of the party's Central Committee - emerges as the clear victor, becoming de-facto leader of the nascent Soviet Union. 1928 * September 20th - Li Rihui is born. 1933 * Date unknown - At the age of 10, Hua Zejun began serving military service under Chiang Kai-shek. * Various - The Kuomintang creates the first nationally-operated concentration and death camps in China, the number of which rises to over 100 in 1941. As a response, the Communists also establishes their own, smaller version of such camps. * March 6th - Shizuo Takada is born. 1935 * April 30th - Stalin appoints Dr Makar Nikolayenko and Major Anatoly Komarev to head a top-secret search for the crashed phylactery ship in Siberia. * May 10th - Oskar Wolf is assigned to work for the Gestapo in Berlin. 1936 * March 7th - German troops enter the Demilitarized Rhineland zone, breaking a vital component of the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. 1939 * June 8th - Winston Kirche enlists in the Royal Air Force. * July 5th - Nikolayenko and Komarev's men find Stalin's sought-after phylactery ship in the Stony Tunguska river. They recover the mainframe - nicknamed the Komarev Device - from Lake Cheko, and Stalin authorises the creation of the Tunguska Anomaly Bureau to study it. However, the existence of the Anomaly is accidentally leaked to agents of the German Abwehr. * August 7th - The Nazi German Projekt Gespalten Kosmos is initiated within early stages of development, with the retrieved information from the Soviet-territorial branch of the Abwehr. This creates the early plans for Operation Barbarossa. * September 1st - The Second World War breaks out in Europe after Nazi Germany invades Poland, citing declarations of war from Great Britain and France. 1940 * June 14th - An RAF secret mission to attack and destroy a vital target in German territories goes awry. Its only survivor, Winston Kirche, is captured on his first mission and brought back to Berlin, where he remains under Gestapo's watch for the rest of the war. 1941 * June 22nd - Germany commences Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of the Soviet Union. Officially, the invasion is conducted for the purpose of 'acquisition of Lebensraum'; in actuality, Adolf Hitler wants to capture the Komarev Device for his own purposes (see Projekt Gespalten Kosmos). A small, non-functioning fragment of the device is soon after recovered by Nazi agents in the USSR. This fragment is handed off to high-ranking S.S. medical specialist Kurt Eichinger for experimentation in an attempt to project the device's power on outside subjects. Some success shows with experiments on condemned children in concentration camps. * July 24th - Winston Kirche, convinced by Oskar Wolf, secretly swears allegiance to the Nazi Party. 1942 * August 23rd - The Battle of Stalingrad begins against the Axis's Army Group B and the Soviet Union's Stalingrad, Don, and South West Fronts. 1943 * February 2nd - The Battle of Stalingrad ends with a convincing and decisive Soviet victory. 1944 * April 16th - Project Kokone is approved by Adolf Hitler and key scientists in Nazi Germany - including Frank Rosefield, in a desperate attempt to assure the revitalization of Germany's best soldiers and fighters if the Reich ever falls. 1945 * April 19th - Frank Rosefield abandons his researches and flees Berlin, believing the Allies to eventually be hunting him down. * May 2nd - The European Theater of World War 2 ends with the Soviet capture of Berlin; six days later, Germany finally surrenders. The Nazi Reich is divided into four zones under Allied control, later leading to the German split between the communist East and capitalist West Germany. * May 4th - Winston Kirche is freed from his prison cell in Berlin. * August 6th - An atomic bomb is dropped upon Central Ward, Hiroshima. Yog'aar and four other Khazard'Vaari are awakened from their slumber in their tomb by the bomb's effects. * September 2nd - The Second World War ends upon Japan's defeat. * September 3rd - The first shots of a restarted Chinese Civil War are fired. 1946 * Various - After an allied victory in the Second World War, numerous Nazi German officials and conspirators are tried by American, Soviet, British, and French judges in Nuremberg with various trials. While most defendants are found guilty and later executed or sentenced to lengthy prison sentences, several with applicable value are "recruited" by the Americans and Soviets for special projects. One such individual is Doctor Kurt Eichinger, who still holds the Komarev fragment; another is Oskar Wolf, whose experience working for the Gestapo allows for development of the Stasi. * June 7th - For the first time in several years, Winston Kirche steps foot on British soil. He retires from military service and returns to his home in Bristol. 1947 * February 2nd - SS Omnicorp is founded. * March - The bill that could have become the Twenty-Second Amendment, limiting the presidency to two terms, dies in Congress. * March 12th - The Truman Doctrine is announced, and is considered by many to be the official start date of the first Cold War. * December - The Kuomintang regiment commanded by Hua Zejun, which includes Li Rihui, defects to the Communist Party of China. 1949 * October 1st - The People's Republic of China is established. * October 3rd - From Hua Zejun's forces, the Heigui Army is formally consolidated. * October 4th - The camp systems of the Kuomintang and the Communists in Mainland China are integrated as one. 1950 * Various - The Heigui Army becomes deeply involved in the Korean War. * February 8th - The Stasi is founded. Oskar Wolf becomes one of its officers. * October - The Battle of Chamdo occurs. Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme is publicly executed and Frank Rosefield is captured, both by the Heigui Army. 1951 * Unknown - Winston Kirche arrives in East Berlin and meets with his former Nazi accomplice Oskar Wolf. Kirche defects to East Germany. 1952 * September 13th - During the Korean War, atomic weapons are dropped by U.S. bombers on Chinese lines in North Korea in an attempt to break the stalemate. Outraged and horrified by the utilization of such weapons both domestically and abroad, America is forced to pull out of Korea. * December 3rd - Using support garnered from the nuclear bombings in September, Heigui Army forces invade Taiwan. 1953 * February 3rd - Taiwan comes under complete control of the Heigui Army. Chiang Kai-shek is publicly hanged for treason. Some Kuomintang members defect to the Communists, most others are executed, only a tiny fraction come to form a minority within local resistance. Horrific mistreatment of the locals is reported. * March 4th - 14 years after it was found, the reverse-engineered Komarev Device comes online. Stalin's consciousness is successfully transferred from his old, weak body to the Device, granting him immortality. The next day, his death is announced to the world. * July 27th - Fall of Seoul. Koreans begin fleeing their country in large swathes - most settling in Japan as Zainichi. Roh Hyeon-Mu and his family defects to the imminent Heigui Army. * September 14th - Nikita Khrushchev wins the power struggle that took place to determine who would succeed Stalin after his 'demise', becoming First Secretary of the Central Committee and ergo the Soviet leader. 1954 * Various - Hua Zejun becomes a Vice Chairman in both the Communist Party of China’s Central Military Commission and PRC National Defense Commission. The first Red Guard death squads start roaming China's streets. * September 29th - Zhu Lingdan is born. 1955 * December 11th - Oskar Wolf and Winston Kirche departs East Germany for China. Once there, they begin training Red Guard death squads. 1956 * February 25th - Khrushchev makes his Secret Speech, commencing de-Stalinisation in the Soviet Union. * March 1st - Most Heigui Army troops depart from Taiwan, believing they have reasserted Chinese control over Taiwan Province. * July 4th - Operation Dying Dragon is put into action by the CIA, activating sleeper agents across Communist-controlled Taiwan Province, and aiding the underground Taiwanese militias in rebellion. By the end of the month, the local Communist-established provincial government quickly falters before the mainland can provide reinforcements, and the provisional government signs a defense pact with the United States, forcing remaining Heigui Army forces to withdraw back to the mainland. * September 24th - Kim Il-sung is publicly executed after a high-profile, kangaroo-court trial. Kim Tu-bong returns to being Party Chairman - and, by extension, becomes leader of Korea. Kim Il-sung's death results in a massive political purge in Korea. 1957 * August 11th - Communist leader Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam is assassinated, three years into the demarcation of Vietnam. Truong Chinh replaces him as North Vietnamese leader. 1959 * April 18th - Shizuo Takada is captured by the Red Guard. * June 17th - Unit 596 is created in anticipation of the Soviet Union stopping its help with China's nuclear program. It also inherits all top-secret projects under the Chinese government's command - including researches on the chemical compound 45-29, intended for use as a WMD. * June 19th - Doctor Frank Rosefield is personally assigned by Chairman Mao to Unit 596 to work on 45-29. 1961 * April 17th-19th - CIA-backed Cuban rebels invade Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Castro's communist government. Simultaneously, CIA infiltrators attack Castro's residential compound with the intent of assassinating him and spreading chaos and confusion to ease the invasion. When initial reports came to the White House, it was thought that Castro had been successfully killed, and U.S. marines were brought in to support the invasion. However, Castro was merely wounded, and by the time the Communist leader was aware of the situation, U.S. forces and Brigade 2506 had already captured the Bay of Pigs area. Once it was revealed that Castro was still alive, the anti-communist forces were ordered to cease fire in an attempt at damage control. U.S-Cuban talks on the situation flop, and the Bay of Pigs remains occupied territory until the Obama Administration. 1962 * October 16th-28th - In an effort to bolster Cuban defences against another possible invasion by US-backed forces, the Soviet Union secretly begins building short-range nuclear missile launch sites on Cuba. Upon learning of the presence missiles, US President Kennedy immediately orders their withdrawal, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis. After a naval blockade and lengthy negotiations between the US and Soviet governments, the missiles are pulled back in return for the removal of American missiles from Italy and the Middle East. 1963 * April 10th - Shinji Sakahara rescues Shizuo Takada and Zhu Lingdan from Drapchi Prison Camp in Tibet. 1964 * August 2nd - The Gulf of Tonkin incident occurs between North Vietnamese and American naval vessels. This later allows President Lyndon B. Johnson to create the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and as a result, intensify American involvement in Southeast Asia. * October 14th - Khrushchev retires from leadership upon recommendation from his peers, leaving Leonid Brezhnev to become the new First Secretary and Soviet leader. 1968 * January 30th-March 3rd - Shizuo Takada and Shinji Sakahara participate in the Battle of Hue. * August 20th - The Warsaw Pact launches Operation Danube - the invasion of Czechoslovakia - over fears that the country would break away from the bloc following the reforms of Czechoslovak premier Alexander Dubcek (who is quickly ousted). 1969 * Unknown - Doctor Kurt Eichinger, now working for the CIA, is killed in an experiment with the Komarev Fragment after striking and subsequently angering his subject; an unidentified orphan girl. The project would be shelved until the 1980s. 1972 * Various - The "Watergate Scandal" doesn't occur - due to anti-media legislation enacted by President Nixon to combat communistic thought. These measures, despite their quasi-authoritarian nature, enjoy great domestic success due to the Vietnam War. Nixon's corruption remains unexposed until 1980. * December 31st - By the year's end, Frank Rosefield, Winston Kirche and Oskar Wolf are dead at the hands of Shizuo Takada. Only Roh Hyeon-Mu is left alive. 1975 * Various - Kim Tu-bong dies. Choe Chang-ik, in his capacity as Premier and Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, becomes the most powerful man in Korea. * January - North Vietnam is brought to its knees by U.S. aerial bombing — guaranteeing swift victory in the defense of the South. South Vietnam would remain a staunch U.S. ally until the Great War. With the South not falling, communism fails to gain a momentum in Indochina, effectively preventing a large-scaled genocide in Cambodia. 1977 * January 7th - Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, is executed by orders of the Cambodian government. * January 17th - The Heigui Army spearheads the Chinese invasion of North Vietnam, which is still reeling from its defeat two years before. To add insult to injury, it makes full use of a perfected version of 45-29 to horrifying effect. * June 21st - Heigui Army parade occurs in Hanoi as North Vietnam is annexed as China's Jiaozhi Province. Questions about the annexation's legitimacy are dismissed by the Communist Party of China. 1978 * Various - Choe Chang-ik dies. Pak Il-u - Defense Minister, mastermind of the 1956 political purge and a proponent of the Heigui Army - becomes the most powerful man in Korea. * March 8th - Deng Xiaoping is framed for murdering Mao Zedong in 1976, and executed for treason. 1979 * May 10th - Yamaha Takada is born. * December 24th - The Soviet Union launches its invasion of Afghanistan to buttress the beleaguered Communist government, which was on the verge of crumbling at the hands of US-backed Mujahideen. 1980 * February 27th - Nixon's corruption becomes public knowledge after the leaking of many classified voice recordings to the media. The perpetrators are unknown still to this day, but the culprits are widely-believed to be Soviet agents. * March 10th - Before Congress could impeach him, Nixon resigns, and his recently-chosen Vice President, Ronald Reagan, succeeds him. 1981 * Various - The newly-elected Reagan begins delving deep into the CIA's more covert past actions in search of new weapons to combat the spread of communism. He takes profound interest in the work of Eichinger and the dormant Komarev Fragment (which had been locked away and mostly forgotten about in the past decade), and starts an initiative to further progress on the study. * April - While looking for suitable candidates for the study, one agent of the CIA meets a young, physically-frail, but exceptionally strong-willed Marine Corps recruit - Theodore Pelayo. Judging the man to be "just perfect", he is soon initiated into the program. With a mostly unknown system, researchers manage to transmit some of the fragment's power into Pelayo, making him an exceptionally powerful (if crude by today's standards) psyker. * June 1st - In its rivalry against both the Soviet Union and the United States, Chinese People's Liberation Army forces - specifically the Heigui Army - are dispatched to assist Afghan Maoists as a different faction of the war in Afghanistan. 1982 * November 10th - Brezhnev retires from leadership of the Soviet Union and is replaced by Yuri Andropov. 1983 * February 1st - Following a referendum under the tenure of Supreme Leader Pak Il-u, Korea is annexed by China. * July 4th - The Chinese Ministry of State Security is formed. * Unknown - Pelayo (known by the codename "Atlas") is shipped to Afghanistan to provide direct aid to the Mujahideen against the invading Soviets. 1984 * February 13th - Konstantin Chernenko replaces Yuri Andropov as Soviet leader after the latter dies just fifteen months into his premiership. Chernenko lasts for even less time, dying on the 10th of March 1985. 1985 * March 11th - Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Chernenko as leader of the Soviet Union. Almost immediately afterwards, he launches a succession of sweeping reforms that come to be known collectively as perestroika. 1986 * December 1st - With the assassination of its last competent and close ideological ally in Afghanistan, China silently begins to withdraw the Heigui Army from Afghanistan. Fighting involving Maoists decreases in intensity. 1988 * Date unknown - Roh Sam-Song is born. * August 13th - Matthew Fren is born. 1989 * February 15th - The Soviet Union withdraws all forces from Afghanistan with little gain from its war effort. The Afghan Communist Party's government is dissolved, and the Party is forced to go into hiding in Soviet Kazakhstan. * November 9th - A larger-than-life man punches a large hole in the Berlin Wall "as a practical joke". The Wall's fall begins. * Various - Atlas celebrates a hard-fought victory against the Soviets. However, unbeknownst to him, the upper echelons of the CIA fear that he has become "corrupted", and hence, plan a daring Spec Ops raid to quickly neutralize him. Jones, who has formed a strong attachment with Atlas, warns him prior to taking his own life. Atlas, although badly wounded, escapes several attack helicopters and SEAL teams thanks to his Mujahideen allies. 1990 * Unknown - Atlas swears vengeance upon the West, who had "given him everything, only to take it all away", and begins rallying the radical elements of the Middle-Eastern world for his own means. 1991 * August 21st - Gorbachev completes perestroika with the signature of the New Union Treaty, reforming the USSR into the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics and marking the start of the Soviet golden age that would last until the breakout of Great World War Three. * Various - Many of Reagan's "eccentric" ideas regarding space travel and defense would come to fruition near the end of his term, from the revived 1960s-era Orion Battleship to the Star Wars defense initiative. This would include the early ideals of the Hermes Program, which led to the successful manned mission to Mars in 1999. 1992 * November 3rd - Reagan, now suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and the subsequent loss of perceived competence in office, loses to Democrat Bill Clinton. 1996 * June 28th - Joseph Hightower, at the time a generally unremarkable son of a restaurant manager and an office secretary, is born. 1999 * July 4th - In a monumental step in the space race, two American Astronauts, Colonel Gene Jackson and Haley Bankstead, land on Mars via the Orion-powered Hermes spacecraft. The achievement wows many across the globe and the Soviet Union in particular; in response, the Soviets would commence work on the Morfey Programme, which aims to place a cosmonaut on the surface of Europa by 2025. 2000 * March 7th - Gorbachev retires from the Soviet presidency after 15 years in office. * May 7th - Two months after Gorbachev's retirement, Vladimir Putin wins the Soviet presidential election and becomes the new leader. * November 4th - Clinton wins reelection. 2001 * September 11th - Radical Islamic terrorists attack several prominent locations in the United States utilizing hijacked airliners, including the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the White House. These attacks are allegedly supported by Atlas, who seeks to "provoke the eagle" in hopes of leading America into a war and destabilizing geopolitical relations. * October 7th - American forces invade Afghanistan (publicly) in an attempt to destroy the Taliban after Al-Qaeda refuses to extradite Osama Bin Laden for his part in the 9/11 attacks. Behind closed doors, however, the U.S. seeks to put an end to Atlas with overwhelming military force. The U.S. would be bogged down in Afghanistan until the 2020s. 2002 * September 11th - Guidelines for Comrades of the Central Plains is given as a handbook to every member of the Communist Party of China's inner circle. The book describes in detail plans for Chinese world domination through a global revolution - a mindset thereafter instilled in the minds of CPC members. The book gradually replaces and later completely displaces Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung as the CPC's official ideological handbook. Roh Sam-Song would be among the book's most avid readers and fervent ideological adherents. 2003 * March 20th - Acting on intelligence suggesting Atlas was negotiating with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (intel suggesting, among other things, a botched DEVGRU raid the previous year), the United States invades Iraq and deposes Hussein. Despite intel suggesting Hussein was in possession of WMDs, these are never recovered, leading many to suspect that Atlas had stolen them. 2007 * January 1st - Motobumi Tsuga, a former Japanese Foreign Minister of Korean descent, succeeds Kofi Annan as UN General Secretary. 2008 * November 4th - A well-liked senator, Barack Obama, wins the election after previously defeating incumbent Clinton in the primaries. 2011 * March 11th - Tōhoku Double Disaster. The Japanese government is forced to begin looking for alternative sources of energy in the aftermath to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. * April 26th - China holds its largest military parade yet in Beijing "to celebrate a great victory against the subhuman Japanese" - referring to the March disaster. 2012 * December 21st - 16 year-old Joseph Hightower has a chance run-in with his computer science teacher after school hours. * December 26th - The Japanese government begins phasing out nuclear power plants across the nation. 2013 * February 9th - A Qh'naazi expeditionary group, including the phaeroness Qh'naaz herself, lands on Earth in search of the missing Vaar'madr, the objective being to take his power for themselves. * February 15th - The Qh'naazi attempt to escape Earth with the knowledge of where Vaar'madr met his end and where OTAN is situated, but their ship is shot down by a nuclear-armed S-300VM long-range surface-to-air missile on the archaelect's orders. The explosive crash-landing of the disabled ship in Chelyabinsk Oblast becomes known to the public as the Chelyabinsk Event, and a Spetsnaz group is tasked with destroying the remains. Though the data and nearly all of the expedition are lost, Qh'naaz herself escapes capture in a damaged avatar body and spends the next 65 years in hiding from OTAN's wrath. 2014 * Early-mid year - Atlas begins to shift focus from small, organized terror cells and begins involvement with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Under Atlas' leadership, ISIS captures several key cities in Iraq, marking the Islamic State as a major player and beginning a global terror crisis that would last until the 2030s. * May 27th - Ukrainian opposition politician Petro Poroshenko attempts a palace coup in the Ukrainian SSR to establish an independent republic in the wake of protests against authoritarian governor Viktor Yanukovych. The Soviet central government intervenes, and the coup is quashed by the KGB - which uncovers evidence of Western backing for the coup, leading to the Poroshenko Incident and a souring of US-Soviet relations (which until this point had begun to thaw). Yanukovych, however, loses the subsequent local election - held in July as a condition of Moscow's assistance - and is replaced by conservative leader Yulia Tymoshenko. * November 15th - Protests in Hong Kong end in blood thanks to the Heigui Army, which has not seen action for some time and become trigger-happy. As a result, the powers of this military unit is greatly curtailed by the Chinese government. Members of the Heigui Army - including Roh Sam-Song - begin deserting en masse to participate in criminal activities. 2016 * January 20th - Obama announces his intention to cede the Bay of Pigs back to Cuba, who has slowly been drifting away from communist rule. Despite the sensibility of this, this would prove to be Obama's undoing, as he would later be assassinated by right-wing extremists just days prior to his leaving of the White House. * February 8th - The Heigui Army is "formally disbanded" by the Chinese government, and is considered no longer a part of the regular Chinese military structure. Outside a minority of members reassigned to other units, the rest become notorious as entire "criminal armies" roaming China's streets. * May 7th - Joseph Hightower launches a successful one-man cyber war against the Islamic State with the intent of "silencing these insufferable cretins", despite being only 19 years-old at the time. This act draws the attention of the Department of Defense, who would provide Hightower a pristine MIT education in hopes that they would "see more" from the prodigy. * June 10th - SS Omnicorp releases "Swords of the Empire", a virtual-reality MMORPG with graphics generally considered "breathtaking and much more advanced than its contemporaries". A commercial success and received very positively by critics, the game would eventually expand into a multimedia franchise. Its release onto the market is remembered as a technological stepping stone. * November 8th - The U.S. presidential elections take place between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. Trump, who has blamed the Democratic domination of office since the '90s on mediocrity and corruption within the Republican party, runs on a platform of populism and revitalization. In a stunning turn of events, Trump wins the White House. A twenty year-old Hightower witnesses this, and although against (and personally disgusted by) Trump's values and campaign promises, takes heavy note. The unique event of a political outsider becoming the most powerful man on the planet is thought to have had a profound effect on Hightower, and possibly motivates him toward his greater lust for power later in life. 2017 * February 21st - The first module for the Morfey One spaceship blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, beginning the mission to Jupiter. * February 27th - After mere weeks into Trump's administration, ISIS sets off a series of chemical attacks in Israel with weapons stolen from Syria. Casualties include the U.S. embassy. Garnering plenty of popular support, (but against the wishes of the CIA and senior military analysts, who are much more familiar with Atlas) Trump authorizes a campaign of total war against ISIS. 2018 * July 6th - The first visible post-Tōhoku Disaster mutations in humans are reported in Japanese hospitals, supposedly due to radiation from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. These reports are carefully covered up by the Japanese government. * August 11th - Putin retires from the presidency after 18 years in power, and is succeeded in the following presidential election (held in November) by Dmitry Medvedev. * September 19th - Yamaha Takada meets Shinji Sakahara for the first time. 2019 * Spring - Heavy flooding leaves much of Manhattan under water, leading to increased concerns of global warming. * March 12th - The last module for the Morfey One spaceship is attached to what is at the time the largest-ever spacegoing vessel: two days later, the expedition team, led by Colonel-General Andrei Golikov, boards the ship, and begins its journey to Jupiter. * November 19th - Swedish biologist Gustav Solstheim presents a revolutionary design for advanced bionic augmentation to the Soviet Department for the Mobilisation of Scientific Forces. Solstheim eventually moves to the Soviet Union to work with the Department. 2020 * November 3rd - Donald Trump wins reelection, riding on the successful war on ISIS. 2021 * January 2nd - Morfey One arrives and stabilises in orbit of Europa after two years in space. The next day, Golikov's team lands on the ice moon in the Thrace region, the event live-recorded to an audience of billions: the site where he planted the Soviet flag would, one hundred and four years later, be where the colonial city of Frakiyagrad is founded. * April 21st - The Soviet Union, with funding from the DEMO Project, activates its first commercial nuclear fusion reactor outside of Moscow, revolutionising green energy in the country. Three more are subsequently planned for construction: outside of Leningrad, Vladivostok and Kiev. 2022 * June 1st - Hightower graduates MIT. Matthew Fren, a Harvard Business alumni and freelancer, takes note of the young Hightower at his ceremony. Approaching the prodigy, Fren and Hightower would begin a long-lasting partnership taking advantage of Fren's business talents and Hightower's immense technical skills. 2023 * September 8th - Medvedev loses the Soviet presidential election to Elvira Nabiullina, who becomes the first female (and also Tatar) Soviet leader in history. 2025 * April 30th - DataPal OS is launched. It soon becomes a huge success in tech-savvy households across the world for it's myriad of features, it's simplicity to use, and it's near-invulnerability to malware and other related tech errors. * September 16th - The Japanese government begins digitizing the Yen using SS Omnicorp-sponsored technology. 2028 * November 18th - At the age of 40, Roh Sam-Song manages to unite the self-proclaimed descendants of the Heigui Army into his own "Heigui Army", after over a decade of street battling. By then, his criminal army is a well-organized paramilitary force, complete with air and maritime detachments. Then internationally labeled terrorist, Roh plans on marching the Heigui Army into Beijing and wins back recognition from the Chinese government. 2029 * March 21st - The Japanese government permanently shuts down the last functioning nuclear power plant in the country. Japan becomes nuclear-free. 2030 * July 27th - The United States Department of Defense, after a period of extensive study, determines the DataPal OS to be the "most advanced, yet most simplistic operating system" ever conceived, and sets in motion a plan to phase it into military service. This awards the up-and-coming Fren Corporation * December - Joseph Hightower is first named Time ''"Person of the Year" for his fast successes in business and "permanently altering our cyber-space". Hightower would go on to receive the award an unprecedented ''five ''times after this (in 2044 for becoming the world's first trillionaire, in 2049 for the "hands-on philanthropy" of his company during the global crisis, in 2056 for the opening of New Rome/the Jefferson Standoff/years of being "America's Champion", in 2072 for producing the first production-model Artificial Intelligence (alongside "Jantsi", the personality matrix of said AI), and finally, in 2080 for his victory in securing the North American continent. He would be later be named "Person of the Century" in 2099, with the runners-up being OTAN and Roh Sam-Song) - more than anyone in history. 2034 * January 5th - The first "LW" product - known as LW-1, the result of years of R&D and cooperation of scientists from various fields of expertise and a "byproduct of alternative energy researches", is released by SS Omnicorp to the market. The thumb-sized attachable devices serve various functions; as a small mobile computer, allowing access to the Net at frightening connection speeds, displaying without need for projectors and screens, letting users listen to music for themselves without the use of headphones, etc. LW-1 immediately becomes a commercial success in its home market of Japan, and serves to kick-start the evolution of LW technology in the country. 2041 * June 4th - Chinese military units, infiltrated by the Heigui Army, orchestrate a coup against Beijing. The government is forced to once again recognize the Army as a de jure military unit. 2047 * March - Beginning of the Resource Wars. * July 1st - Upon expiration of China's duty to run Hong Kong as a "Special Administrative Region" as per the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Heigui Army tanks roll into the region to reaffirm Chinese sovereignty over it. 2048 * Unknown - Matthew Fren "commits suicide". 2049 * December 21st - Chinese armor appear all over the streets of Macau, in a display of might and reassertion of sovereignty not dissimilar to the event in Hong Kong two years earlier. 2050 * February 2nd - Japan's National Diet unanimously appointed Shinji Sakahara as Prime Minister, amidst fears of the ongoing Resource Wars escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. Sakahara's oligarchy takes hold in Japan. 2053 * Winter - Roh Sam-Song commits the rape that would conceive ROH-4. 2054 * July 20th - ROH-4 is born as a human and son to Roh Sam-Song. His biological mother dies giving birth to him, resulting in his being raised by his father. 2058 * December 27th - Huang Wujun is born. 2066 * November 11th - Japan's Sakahara government begins constructing "Sky Shields" above territories under Japanese jurisdiction. 2070 * Late year - ROH-4 enlists for military service upon being urged by his father. 2072 * March 15th - Following years of disillusionment of the status quo, ''New Age Technocracy ''is published. The book outlines all of Hightower's views in regards to an "ideal government", and details how such a state would look and how the mechanics of such will work. The book pictures a near-utopian, post-scarcity setting, guided by a "powerful, yet benevolent world-state where efficiency is prized over rule of law" and "the common man is free to enjoy the benefits of such". The book is criticized by many as the "idealistic ramblings of a political outsider" or "the logical, dystopian conclusion of the liberal elite that Hightower sees as ideal", but seen as an intriguing theoretical system by many others. 2073 * September 13th - After being continuously dismissed as "preposterous" by the Chinese government, Project Devirus of Unit 596 gets off the drawing board. The project intends to create a fusion between biological and technological viruses - known as "Devirus" - to create a new generation of WMDs for use by the People's Liberation Army. * Late - U.S. Senator, possible Democratic prospect for future Presidential campaigns, and long time friend of Hightower, Amy Gallridge (D-Nev), resigns from the Senate and moves to New Rome. Conspiracy theorists of the time almost accurately predict her involvement with "Hightower's gamble". 2075 * November 14th - Two thirds of the Heigui Army invade Alaska. The Battle of Anchorage begins. 2076 * January 27th - Chinese forces, including the remaining third of the Heigui Army, mount an invasion of Japan from the Korean peninsula. '''2077' * January 7th - The last Heigui Army troops are beaten back from Anchorage. Alaska is reclaimed by US forces. * January 26th - Plans for Unit 596 to redevelop and renew 45-29 are green-lit by the Chinese government. Experiments are carried out at Unit 596's Manchurian labs. * June 15th - The last of Chinese military presence on Japanese soil is removed. * June 17th - The government of China gives Unit 596 full authority and autonomy with regards to its production of WMDs. * July 26th - Demanded by Chinese field commanders, the first batches of renewed 45-29 are distributed to People's Liberation Army units, exactly 6 months after the redevelopment project began. * August 25th - With the construction of the Sky Shield over the city of Sendai and the northern parts of Hokkaido behind schedule due the Chinese invasion and the shields themselves deemed faulty, citizens of these regions are evacuated to neighboring cities as the Japanese government enforces a no-go area over them. * September 22nd - President Baxter signs an executive order, approving law enforcement and military to seize the assets of the Fren Corporation and arrest Hightower, deeming FrenCo a "danger to the American way of life". The approved plan would never be put into action, however, as the world would undergo cataclysmic nuclear warfare the very next day. * September 23rd - The nuclear exchange of 2077. ** Nuclear missiles leave their silos and strategic bombers with atomic payloads begin combat deployment all around Earth. Due to the sheer devastation of the two-hour conflict, along with the destruction of all notable NORAD sites, it is unknown who fired the first shot. Many believe it to be China, who dropped the bombs in a last-ditch attempt to halt the U.S. military advance. Others say it was the U.S., who perhaps shot first to quickly conclude the campaign. Others, however, are of the opinion that the highly-influential Joseph Hightower prompted the launch to fulfill his requirements of building his dream state. ** Shinji Sakahara exerts his power over the planet Earth, effectively preventing the surface of the planet from becoming too unrecognizable at the end of the nuclear exchange. ** The ground of Unit 596's facility is ground zero of a nuclear strike. All of the group's experiments in Manchuria - including researches on 45-52 and Project Devirus - abruptly grind to a halt. ROH-4 is pushed by his father Roh Sam-Song into a vat containing large concentrations of Devirus samples. As his body decomposes and his sanity deteriorates, he begins his painful transformation into a virus himself - a process lasting several years. ** While a combination of sophisticated defense systems and Sky Shields defends most of Japan from incoming nuclear attacks, a Chinese warhead annihilates Sendai as predicted. The city remains in ruins for the next 2 centuries as a reminder of the horrific global nuclear exchange. ** Washington D.C. is desolated by nuclear strikes. President Baxter retreats to his presidential bunker, and within several hours of the first detonation, signs into existence the United States Provisional Government until the rest of the country can be unified once more. ** New Rome seals itself off, warning it's inhabitants of "maintenance delay" and they should "remain indoors". Secretly, FrenCo military assets are gathered and prepared for "combat missions on the now irradiated surface", and the citizens aren't alerted of the bombing until hours after it's conclusion, justifying the military mobilization as an "attempt to help your friends and family on the surface, if they're still alive". ** Utilizing the communications blackout of the war, the Orkish test subjects of Mariposa Research Compound organize a violent breakout orchestrated by Jedidiah Rogers, the most intelligent Ork prisoner. The human staff and security are killed easily, and the Orks win their freedom. Most split off into three separate groups - Rogers and his cabal head north, a large group led by Dorousca heads east, and the Orks the groups deemed "too dumb" are left behind to raid and pillage out of the complex. * October 2nd - New Roman Paramilitary units, commanded by Julian Orwell, along with thousands of well-equipped volunteer aid workers, take to the surface. Airborne expeditions utilizing heavily-armored, radiation-shielded airships are sent in all directions, to Mexico in the South, Canada in the North, and towards the American West. Orwell's ground forces split off to search for survivors in the nearby metropolitans of Nashville and Saint Louis, stopping in desolated towns to evacuate survivors back to New Rome along the way. As Orwell's force submerges, Hightower himself sends out a broadcast "to what remains of the free world", assuring listeners that New Rome still stands, and is "working diligently to provide relief to the injured, displaced, and shaken". He also warns the United States government, should it have remained, "to not interfere, for I intend to take this, the most dire of situations that you have caused, under my care". The USPG receives the broadcast and, correctly perceiving it as a threat, mobilizes any surviving military and national guard units on the mainland (many of which still being combat-ready, due to their deployments nation-wide during the previous weeks). This marks the beginning of "Hightower's Rebellion". * October 4th - Part of Orwell's group encounters the remnants of the 101st Airborne Division near Fort Campbell in Kentucky. Despite receiving the USPG's orders of "neutralizing any armed resistance", the Division's acting commander, Colonel Tara Irving, defects to Orwell after witnessing the evacuation of some four thousand civilians in the area (while there were no standing plans to aid or otherwise evac victims from the USPG), making the 101st the first of many U.S. military units to join the "Uprising". * October 5th - The other half of Orwell's group comes under attack from U.S. National Guard forces in northern Tennessee. Suffering heavy casualties, Orwell is forced to pull back. Learning from the mistake, he organizes his best troops (former Special Forces units and the Gurkhas Hightower had previously arranged for use in his armies) and re-purposes them for force reconnaissance and covert missions, intending for them to be the "eyes in ears" in a battlefield with limited electronic aid. This makeshift unit would go on to form the Ranger Corps. * October 7th - Ahead of schedule, Orwell's split army arrives at their intended destinations of Saint Louis and Nashville respectively. Along with aid and evacuations of the local civilian populations, Paramilitary forces work to preserve local artifacts of any significance. However, U.S. forces in the area regroup and converge on the locations, hoping to strangle Hightower's Rebellion in it's crib. * October 10th - U.S. armor breaks through Paramilitary lines in Saint Louis, leading to the first prolonged conflict in the streets of the ruined city. Corporal Bijay Rauniyar, a Gurkha serving in the Paramilitary, is killed by artillery shortly after climbing to the top of the Saint Louis Arch and providing covering fire with his sniper rifle and a recoilless gun, buying time for friendly forces to retreat to more favorable positions deeper in the city. He would become the first posthumous recipient of the Imperial Military's highest award - The Hightower Eagle, in 2082. * October 11th - The first Bloomer lands outside Mexico City, deploying over a thousand soldiers and aid workers. The U.S. military governor of Mexico, General Jane Sizemore, disregards USPG orders to engage the New Roman forces and insteads humbly requests for the assistance of the "Frenks" and their superior manpower and resources in aiding the desolated population, surrendering if necessary. Mexico is soon after captured for New Rome without a single shot being fired, Sizemore being personally congratulated by Hightower for "seeing reason in these difficult times". * October 13th - A small wing of the few surviving U.S. Fighters in Canada intercept and shoot down the second Bloomer over Toronto. The majority of the Expedition's resources and personnel survive, but are forced to fight a desperate defensive against the power-armored infantry companies of General Buzz Babcock until reinforcements would arrive a month later. * October 14th - The third and fourth Bloomers (with air support) arrive in the west, landing Las Vegas, where they rendezvous with the New Rome sympathizers locked away in the safety of the Las Vegas Vaults, bolstering their numbers. After leaving a token occupation/aid group, they proceed into California, marking the beginning of the Western Campaign. * October 21st - U.S. forces are driven out of Saint Louis. Orwell and his victorious forces recruit captured soldiers into the Paramilitary, and march East, through Kentucky and on to Virginia. * October 25th - The Western Expedition occupies Southern California, and sets up relief centers in Los Angeles and San Diego. The rest of the forces march north towards San Francisco, where a major U.S. force is gathered. * October 31st - Long-range missile bombardments break the siege in Toronto, driving Babcock back and allowing New Roman forces to secure the city. * November 3rd - Drawing on the unused manpower in Mexico, defecting U.S. troops, and healthy volunteers from the arriving civilians, four more Bloomer expeditions are raised in New Rome. Two are destined for New England, one for Chicago, and one for Western Canada. * November 7th - Orwell's group launches an offensive through the heavily-fortified Virginia in an attempt to capture the ruins of Washington D.C. The offensive would last for two years. * December 19th - A large number of U.S. military units in Asia regroup under the command of Colonel Dean Salazar. Seeing no other options and no way to return home, they abandon their mission and form The Stranded raider gang, and carve a wide swath through China, Mongolia, and Russia as a means to survive. In the immediate years after the war, no one is capable of opposing The Stranded due to their military organization, discipline, and technology, and they become a scourge on the Eastern world. * December 25th - Hightower gives an encouraging holiday broadcast to the "distraught peoples of North America and the world", promising them that, if it hasn't already arrived, "help is on the way". * December 27th - San Francisco is besieged by New Roman forces. =Post-War Era= 2078 * Early-mid year - Roh Sam-Song dies from radiation poisoning. * 2080 * May 13th - Uprising forces in Michigan faces off against a last-ditch USPG armored counteroffensive on the Canadian border led by General Buzz Babcock, who had named himself "President" due to the lack of any other alternative. Though suffering heavy casualties on both sides, the USPG is held off, and Babcock is forced to surrender. This battle would be the last major engagement of the Rebellion, and would mark the end of the war. * June 3rd - With Babcock's surrender, the United States Provisional Government is formally pronounced "defeated". The Uprising Movement is soon dissolved, and the New Roman Provisional Government is established to oversee the ruined North American continent until a proper state can reasonably be established. 2081 * April 4th - Rong Dazhao is born. * November 20th - After over a year of the New Roman Provisional Government, the Council of 2081 meets in New Rome. Lasting a week, the Council lays the groundwork of a "stable, prosperous nation-state capable of carrying the burden of our new modern world". With the goal of "expanding said prosperity" and "guaranteeing the personal freedom of mankind" while simultaneously "recognizing the failures of democracy" and "the political, social, and economic misery caused by global resource shortages in the mid-late 21st century", the envisioned state houses many of the ideals seen in Hightower's New Age Technocracy, and establishes his 2072 book as a guideline. * November 27th - The Council of 2081 concludes, announcing to the nervous survivors of North America and the rest of the world the foundation of the New Frenco Empire - "an Imperial state dedicated to rejuvenating the world at all costs, while ensuring the maximum comfort and stability possible to all it's denizens", with Hightower named the first Emperor (acting as Head of State) and Gallridge named the first Chancellor (acting as Head of Government). With the promise of stability, rebuilding projects and military protection, former American allies and any other survivors capable of hearing the broadcasts are given the early opportunity to join the governmental collective, but warned that if they don't accept the invitation that "the Empire ''will ''liberate the common man at any cost". The relatively-unscathed Japan is the first to peacefully accept the invitation and join the Empire as a self-governing entity within the new Frenkish state. 2088 * April 5th - Huang Zhengchun is born. 2091 * October 24th - Chen Dalong is born. 2103 * November 3rd - Ying Huawei is born. 2104 * May 17th - Huang Xiawa is born. 2111 * July 12th - Elena Trotskaya is born. 2125 * June 6th - Chen Guohao is born. 2131 * Various - Shinji Sakahara briefly goes missing. 2135 * February 23rd - Huang Mengyue is born. 2146 * May 12th - The Chronosphere Experiment, a Mecharussian project to discover and perfect multiversal travel technology, is authorised by the Senate and commenced by the Solstheimmetall Research Bureau. 2148 * September 4th - J9-75 is born. 2149 * December 31st - After three years of research, propelled by vast amounts of resource allocations from the Senate, the Solstheimmetall Research Bureau successfully creates a functioning interdimensional portal generator at the Mezghorye Research Facility blacksite. After many tests with micro-scale portals, the first proper opening is scheduled to take place on the first day of 2150. =Main Canon= 2150 * January 1st - The Chronosphere Experiment ends in catastrophe after the portal machine violently explodes inside of the Mezghorye laboratory, killing all of the scientists involved and destroying all research documents in the resultant fire. Upon discovering the disaster, the Senate withdraws all funding for the project and the Experiment is branded a total failure. * August 14th - The nuclear bombing of Algiers takes place. * December 10th - Landsberg Prison in Bavaria, European Federation is raided by unknown forces. Within the span of thirty-eight minutes, a full third of the garrison is slaughtered as the attackers cut a bloody path into the underground high security wing of the prison. When relief arrives, they find much of the compound in flames, with the remaining security forces struggling to put down escaping prisoners. Notably, high value detainee Karel Anděl is found dead in solitary confinement, apparently having been summarily executed. =Alternative Canon= 2150 * January 1st - The Chronosphere Experiment is a resounding success, creating an interdimensional portal uplink from the Mezghorye laboratory to Ringworld 256. Shortly after, Mechanocratic Russia comes into contact with other powers that have achieved multiversal travel, and goes on to become a founding member of the League of Mechanocracies. * December 10th - Landsberg Prison in Bavaria, European Federation is raided by unknown forces. Within the span of forty-five minutes, a full 93% of the garrison is slaughtered as the attackers cut a bloody path into the facility's command center and sweep the compound's corridors. When relief arrives, they find much of the compound in flames, with most prisoners having escaped. Worryingly, high value detainee Karel Anděl is nowhere to be found, and video footage shows him escaping alongside an unidentified individual. The European Federation begins cracking down on far-left organizations in earnest. Category:Out of Character